FT8 Operating Tip(s?)

[Jeff Millar]

FT8 is a great mode for relatively small stations combined with the upswing in solar activity means higher frequencies and smaller antennas work effectively.  Higher frequency are most useful during daylight hours. 10, 12 and 15 meters have been very active lately.

But when the bands get very crowded, there are multiple stations stomping on each other and the smaller stations get blocked.

One trick I’ve noticed is that in the afternoon or early evening, the sun has set in Europe and all those stations no long create interference for working the west coast and pacific.  Conversely early morning is good for working towards the each without as much interference from west coast stations.

It’s easy to visualize this with pskreporter.info.  The screen shot shows that 10 meters is open to west coast and south america but not to Europe.  Europe is open on 15 and 20, most stations are on 20.

Also not the gray line propagation  to Japan on 20 and 30 meters.  That often happens at sunset/sunrise.

 

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[Jeff Millar]

A followup about the settings for pskreporter.

On all bands, show signals, sent/rcvd by, grid sq, fn42 using FT8, over the last 15 min

Bold text means value in a selection or text box.

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